


Lost (And Found)

by pasteldanhowells



Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: Childhood Friends, Hurt/Comfort, Inspired by Stranger Things (TV 2016), Kid Dan Howell, Kid Phil Lester, M/M, Spoilers, Superpowers, Telekinesis, alternative universe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-27
Updated: 2020-07-27
Packaged: 2021-03-06 06:47:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,086
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25549213
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pasteldanhowells/pseuds/pasteldanhowells
Summary: PJ suddenly goes missing, and while Phil, Chris and Louise are out looking for him, they happen upon a boy who seems to be troubled. Phil just wants to help, and vows to protect the boy from the bad people who hurt him.
Relationships: Dan Howell/Phil Lester
Comments: 2
Kudos: 11





	Lost (And Found)

**Author's Note:**

> My fic for the Phandom Reverse Bang! A Stranger Things crossover, phan edition!
> 
> Author: @dxnhowell  
> Beta: @phinalphantasy7 (lilactreesinwinter on ao3)  
> Artist: @softphiily
> 
> Also, a quick little thank you to my artist and beta for being so patient while I wrote the fic and didn’t finish it until the last second. I got very busy with work irl but I was determined to finish this fic so I’d also like to apologize in advanced if the ending seems a little rushed, but I hope people will still enjoy the fic :)

They’ve been searching for an hour, _at least_. Although Phil hasn’t really been keeping track of time, because the only thing that’s been on his mind is finding his friend PJ. Nobody’s seen him all day, which is totally unlike PJ to begin with. He would have called his mom first thing so she wouldn’t panic. Well, now she’s panicking because PJ isn’t home, and nobody is doing anything to find him.

So, Phil and his friends Chris and Louise took it upon themselves to go look for PJ, despite their parents strictly forbidding them to look for PJ alone.

But, PJ is missing, and they weren’t going to just sit back and do nothing. PJ is their best friend, after all.

“PJ?” Phil shouts as loud as he can, walking ahead of Chris and Louise. It’s raining now, so it’s hard for anyone to hear them. “Peej! Mate, come on! Stop playing games, this isn’t funny anymore!”

Chris frowns as he listens to Phil. “Maybe we should head back now.”

“Come on, Chris. Stop being such a baby all the time,” Louise groans, rolling her eyes.

“I’m not being a baby. I’m just trying to be realistic here.”

“You being realistic?” Louise laughs sarcastically, earning a glare from Chris. “That’s so funny, Chris. Really funny. Wow. I didn’t know you were suddenly a comedian.”

“Guys!” Phil shouts with frustration as he turns around and glares at his two friends. “Seriously, now isn’t the time for you two to be bickering. Our friend is missing, and needs our help.”

“We’ve been looking for over an hour, Phil!” Chris complains. “I wanna find PJ too, trust me. Me more than anyone out here-” He ignores Louise’s hard glare, and sighs. “But, we’re in the middle of the woods, and it’s raining. We should go back before things start getting dangerous.”

“Seriously, Chris. If you’re just going to be a sissy, just go home. Phil and I will look for PJ,” Louise huffs, walking straight over to Phil and crossing her arms against her chest as she stares at Chris.

“ _And_ -” Phil groans as Chris continues ranting. “Not to mention, we’re at the place where PJ was last seen, and we have nothing to defend ourselves. Not exactly the smartest plan here.”

“Honestly, shut up Chris,” Phil snaps with a glare.

“I’m just sayin’. Maybe we should be a little more smart about this-”

“Please, when’s the last time any of us have done anything remotely smart?” Louise scoffs. “We’ve all got a reputation for getting in trouble, you most of all of us-” She points at Chris accusingly.

Phil rolls his eyes as they continue their bickering, and then he immediately pauses. He thinks he hears some rustling coming from the woods. He looks over, hoping that it’s PJ about to walk out of the trees.

“Guys,” he says quietly. But, of course, Louise and Chris completely ignore him and continue bickering. “Guys, shut _up_!”

The two finally go silent, and look over at Phil.

Louise opens her mouth to no doubt yell at Phil for being rude, but he points a finger towards where he heard the rustling in the woods. “You guys hear that too, right?” he asks quietly.

“Is that-?” Chris begins to whisper, moving closer to the others.

“PJ?” Phil shouts, his heart beating faster. “Peej, is that you? It’s us! Phil, Louise and Chris-”

“I’m not sure shouting our names in the middle of the woods is a good idea,” Chris mumbles.

“You’re about to get smacked if you don’t shut up,” Louise warns.

“ _Shut up_ ,” Phil glares at both of them. “Neither of you are being very helpful at all.”

His head snaps towards the sound of more rustling and his eyes widen when a boy, who definitely isn’t PJ, appears from the trees. Phil has never seen this boy in his life. He’s small, and covered in dirt, and looks scared. Phil already has so many questions whirling around in his mind right now.

“Who the hell are you?” Chris is the first to ask.

“Chris!” Louise hisses before she harshly whacks Chris on the chest.

“Ow!” Chris glares at Louise as he rubs his chest. “That hurt.”

“Honestly,” Phil grumbles as he shakes his head, before looking at the new boy again. “I’m so- sorry, uh... we were looking for our friend…Are you… lost? Are you hurt? Do you need any help?”

“One question at a time, Phil. He’s probably scared,” Louise says in a soft voice. She looks at the boy. “We’re sorry. You must be overwhelmed. We can help you, if you need it. I promise we won’t hurt you.”

Phil glances at Louise with concern, and she’s looking just as concerned. Of course Phil wants to help this boy. He seems lost, and scared, and who knows what he’s been through.

“Should we call the cops?” Chris whispers, biting his lip slightly as he looks up at Louise.

Louise scoffs. “What are the police going to do? Have you not been paying attention to how they’ve been treating PJ? This boy already looks terrified. I’d hate for him to go through anymore trauma.”

“Guys, it’s raining right now, and it’s getting really dark out too,” Phil frowns. “I mean, we can take him to my house and he can just stay in my basement until we figure out what he needs.”

“You’re going to take a stranger to your house?” Chris asks, his eyes widening. “Are you crazy?”

“Your parents are not going to allow that to happen, Phil!” Louise scolds. “That is so dangerous.”

“We’re not going to tell my parents,” Phil hisses. “We’ve got to help him. We can’t just leave him behind.”

Chris takes charge. “Guys, enough bickering. Let’s just get him to Phil’s house, then we can decide what we’re going to do from there. We can’t just stand here in the rain all night! We’re going to catch a cold.”

“You know it’s scary when Chris starts being the sensible one,” Louise jokes.

Phil rolls his eyes and looks over at the other boy. “Come on then.” He carefully holds his hand out, hoping the boy will take it. It will show a sign of trust, and that’s all Phil wants from the boy.

The boy hesitates, before finally taking a step closer to Phil and shyly taking hold of his hand.

Phil smiles brightly at the response from the boy, and starts leading the way back to his house.

By the time they finally arrive, luckily without being caught by his parents, it’s still raining quite heavily, but the only thing Phil cares about is getting this boy somewhere safe.

“This is our basement. You should be safe down here for a while until we can figure something else out. Um, is there a number we can call for your parents? Or, someone else we can contact for you?” He turns to look at the scared boy, who is still nameless and hasn’t spoken a word to any of them.

“Did you run away? Why were you in the middle of the woods?” Chris asks.

“Are you in some kind of trouble?” Louise presses, instantly looking the boy up and down for any signs that he might be hurt, and then her eyes widen. “Oh, goodness. Is that blood on you?”

“Guys, stop it! Stop asking him so many questions at once! You’re freaking him out!” Phil warns.

“Yeah? Well, he’s freaking me out!” Chris retorts, glaring at Phil as he crosses his arms against his chest. “Come on, why isn’t he saying anything? He’s probably deaf.”

“Chris! That’s rude to say to someone,” Louise warns.

“He’s not deaf, Chris. He’s just scared, you idiot. You’re scaring him,” Phil scoffs. He grabs a random pair of pants that were sitting on the couch, and carefully shows them to Dan. “Here, these pants are clean. You should probably change after being in that rain for so long.”

The boy stares at Phil, and hesitates, before he bends down and slowly starts taking his pants off.

“No!” Phil yelps as soon as he realizes what the boy is doing.

“Oh, God!” Louise quickly covers her eyes before she can see anything she doesn’t want to see

“No, no, no! Don’t do that! Please, for the love of God!” Phil shouts. He sighs in relief when the boy stops. “Here,” Phil hands the pants to the boy, and points towards the bathroom. “See that door over there? That’s the bathroom. You can go in there and change. You know… privacy?”

The boy’s eyes widen when he sees the door, and he quickly shakes his head. “No,” he says simply.

“Oh, so the boy _can_ speak?” Chris frowns.

“I told you. You were probably just scaring him with all those questions you were asking him,” Phil snaps. He looks back over at the boy again. “Okay, uh- you don’t want the door closed?”

The boy nods.

“Okay. Here-” Phil gently leads the boy to the bathroom. “Why don’t we close the door halfway? That way, we’ll still be outside, and you can still see us if you need our help, okay? It’s just… we kind of don’t want to see you naked. No offense. That’s just really weird.”

Phil sighs in relief when the boy steps into the bathroom, and he closes the door halfway behind him just like he promised, and makes his way back over to Chris and Louise. His heart is beating kind of fast now. He has absolutely no idea what he’s doing. All he knows is that he wants to help this boy.

“This is mental,” Chris hisses. “We should have gone to the police like I suggested.”

“No,” Phil warns, glaring at Chris. “At least we know he can talk.”

“He’s said one word to us, Phil, this entire time we’ve been with him. I think there’s something seriously wrong with him. He must have gone through some kind of trauma. I mean, he didn’t even want to go into the bathroom with the door closed all the way,” Louise points out.

“Guys, he can probably still hear you, you know?” Phil frowns at Louise.

“No, listen to us, Phil. Louise _is_ right. There definitely is something wrong with this kid. Just think about it. You know, I bet he escaped from Pennhurst.”

“Where?” Phil asks, blinks a few times with confusion.

“It’s like a nuthouse in Kerley County. You know? Where all the crazy people go.” 

“Uh huh. I bet you got a lot of family there too, don’t ya?” Phil asks, a hint of amusement in his voice.

“Ha ha. That’s very funny, Philip. Come on, guys. Work with me here. I mean, it would explain why all of his hair is gone and why he’s totally crazy. He’s _mental_.”

“Chris, stop that. Now you’re just being mean,” Louise glares at him before sighing and turning to Phil. “We should just tell someone. A parent. Your mother would know what to do.”

“You want to tell my mother?” Phil’s eyes widen slightly. “ _That’s_ crazy.”

“Crazy? How is that crazy? We’re just kids, Phil! We have to tell your mum,” Chris agrees.

“And tell her what exactly?” Phil crosses his arms against his chest. “Tell her that we snuck out because we wanted to go and find PJ when we were all told specifically not to go out? Hello? If we told my mum, our houses would officially become our prisons. We’d never be able to leave our houses again.”

“Dammit,” Chris curses, running a hand through his hair.

“You have a point,” Louise mumbles. “Our parents would be furious if they found out we snuck out.”

“Alright. Here’s the plan. He sleeps here tonight-”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa. You’re seriously going to let a _stranger_ sleep in your basement?”

“Just listen to me!” Phil hisses. “I have a plan. Okay? It’s all we’ve got, so just listen. So, in the morning, I’ll sneak him upstairs and then he’ll go around and ring the doorbell. Mum will feel bad and let him inside, and she’ll know what to do. She’ll know how to help. Then we can find PJ tomorrow. We _will_ find him.”

“What if she sends him back to Pennhurst, or wherever it is he came from?” Louise asks, frowning.

“She won’t,” although Phil isn’t sure if he’s trying to convince Louise or himself. He sees the boy shyly stepping out of the bathroom and smiles. “Oh, hey. The pants fit. Good. Um, hey. So-” He looks around, and then quickly grabs the sleeping bag that he spots on the floor and then lays it out for the boy. “So, you’re gonna sleep down here, tonight. I hope that’s okay with you.”

“This is mental,” Chris mumbles for the millionth time that night.

“Shut up, Chris. _You’re_ the mental one,” Phil warns, shooting a look at Chris before straightening up and looking at the boy. “Oh, we never asked for your name. Uh, do you have something that we can call you?” Phil frowns when the boy doesn’t say anything, only stares at Phil with a blank expression on his face.

Then Phil spots the tattoo on the boy's arm. “Whoa!”

“What? Phil, what is it?” Louise takes a step forward.

“That’s so cool. Is that real?” Phil asks, points at the tattoo he’s spotted. He quickly pulls his hand back when the boy snatches his arm away. “S- Sorry. It’s just… I’ve never seen a kid with a tattoo before. So, what does it mean? ‘Eleven’? Is that like a code or something?” Still, the boy says nothing.

“Well, if he’s not going to tell us his name, maybe we can call him Eleven?” Louise suggests.

“Eleven?” Phil looks over at Louise, unsure. He doesn’t want to upset the boy by calling him something that he doesn’t want to be called. Phil looks back at the boy. “Well, okay. _Eleven_. Is it okay if we call you Eleven until you’re comfortable telling us your real name?”

The boy, now known as Eleven, slowly nods.

“Okay, cool. My name is Phil. It’s short for Philip. With one L, ‘cos it’s cooler that way. Well, anyways… um, I’ll guess I’ll see you in the morning then. I’ll try to sneak down some breakfast, okay?” Phil says. “Goodnight, Eleven.” He turns to Chris and Louise, to go upstairs with them.

“Goodnight, Phil,”

Phil can’t help the smile that forms on his face when he hears the two words spoken by Eleven.

Chris nudges Phil. “We’ve got to get going.”

Phil nods, and he leads the way up the stairs. He hates to leave Eleven by himself so soon like this, but they’ve got no other choice at the moment. It’s too risky bringing him anywhere else in the house where he could get caught. Phil would just rather wait until the morning, and hope that his plan works.

The first thing that Phil does the next morning is go straight down to the basement to check on Eleven. After making himself look presentable, of course. Phil hopes that the plan he came up with works, because he wants to keep Eleven safe, and he wants his mum to help him to do that. He trusts her.

“Oh, hey. You found the walkies,” Phil says as he comes down the stairs, startling Eleven. “They’re cool, right? We use them to talk to each other. I use it to talk to Chris the most. He lives pretty close to me.”

Eleven blinks at him. Phil wonders if Eleven will ever trust him enough to speak.

“So, uh- I grabbed a waffle for you. It was the closest thing I could get.” Phil bends down and hands the Eggo to Eleven. “Hopefully you can have a real meal later. My mum’s a great cook.”

Eleven hesitates as he takes the Eggo from Phil. He slowly takes a bite out of it.

Phil grins, pleased to see that Eleven’s comfortable enough to actually eat something around him.

When Eleven finishes his Eggo, Phil’s ready to get his plan started.

“Okay, so here’s what we gotta do. I need you to go outside, and then ring the doorbell.” Phil chuckles when he sees the confused look on Eleven’s face. “It’s the little button by the door. You’ll see it. Okay, and then you have to pretend like we’ve never met each other, otherwise my mum will be very suspicious, and that will ruin the whole plan. Do you think you can do that?”

“No,” is the simple reply that comes from Eleven.

“No?” Phil stares at Eleven. “No, as in you don’t think you can do it?”

“No,” Eleven repeats, staring right back at Phil. “Bad people.”

“Bad people?” Phil repeats, and now he’s confused, and then the realization hits him. “You are in trouble, aren’t you? You ran away?” He takes a deep breath and then he runs a hand through his hair. “Well, shit... this just made things a whole lot more complicated.”

“Philip! Where are you? We’re going to be late for school!”

Phil jumps when he hears his mum shouting for him from upstairs. “I’m coming, mum!” He panics, and then he looks over at Eleven. “I have to go to school now, okay? I’m sorry I have to leave you again, but I’ll be back in a couple of hours. Just… stay here, okay? Don’t go outside. It’s not safe. Uh, see you later.” He quickly turns and he runs up the stairs. He sees his mum in the kitchen.

“What were you doing down in the basement?” Kathryn asks, raising her eyebrows at her son.

“I,” Phil hesitates as he tries to come up with an excuse. “Um, well... I was just looking for something, but it’s not important. Come on, we don’t want to be late for school, do we?”

“You’re worried about being late for school?” Kathryn reaches over and gently presses her hand against Phil’s forehead. “Who are you, and what have you done with my son?”

“Mum,” Phil whines as he swats her hand away. “Come on, let’s get going!” He grabs his backpack and runs out of the house before she can say anything else to him.

Really, all Phil cares about is keeping Eleven safe. And also finding PJ, who’s _still_ missing.

Phil can hardly focus during the entire school day, worried about how Eleven is doing back at his house and if he’s keeping himself safe and hidden. Phil feels terrible leaving him alone, but he can’t skip school. Honestly, his mother would absolutely throw a fit if he ever skipped school.

“I can’t believe you guys honestly thought I would just take off without you guys,” Phil mumbles as he leads the way into his house, Chris and Louise following behind him. School is finally finished, and they’ve come straight back to Phil’s house to check on Eleven.

“Well, I mean, can you blame us, Phil? I mean, you’re like totally obsessed with Eleven,” Chris replies, raising his eyebrows at Phil. “It’s a little scary how obsessed you are.”

“Now that’s ridiculous. I am _not_ obsessed with Eleven.”

“I can’t believe I’m actually agreeing with Chris for once, Phil, but you kind of are,” Louise speaks up.

“How so?” Phil crosses his arms against his chest.

“Okay, now you’re being ridiculous. You’ve only known him for less than a day and he’s all you talk about. You literally wouldn’t shut up about him during school today. I got so sick of hearing about _how cool_ Eleven is that I almost voluntarily was about to go and sit with that weird Valdes girl,” Chris tells him.

“Chris, don’t be mean. Cat is a lovely girl,” Louise warns.

Phil rolls his eyes. “Eleven is cool. He’s got a shaved head and he has a tattoo!”

“Okay, enough. Let’s go check on him. He’s been alone all day, plus I’m sure he’s starving,” Louise turns and opens the basement door. She’s the first one to walk downstairs.

Phil hesitates before following. He sighs in relief when they find Eleven, playing with the walkie talkie toys once again. He’s still safe. Phil has only known him for less than a day, but he wants to protect this boy with everything that he can. Even though he doesn’t really know that much about him, Phil can tell that he’s been through a lot, and for such a young age too.

 _I’m not obsessed with him. I’m not. I’m just being a good friend. That’s all_ , Phil thinks to himself.

“Eleven?” he asks carefully, not wanting to spook the boy.

Eleven’s head immediately snaps up, his eyes wide as he looks up at Phil.

“It’s okay. It’s just us. You remember Chris and Louise, right? They were here last night,” Phil assures him, not wanting to scare the boy. He’s already terrified, and Phil wants to make him feel comfortable and safe.

Eleven glances over at Chris and Louise, though he still doesn’t say anything.

Louise sighs softly, and turns to look at Phil. “We seriously need to tell someone about him. You can’t just keep him locked up down here like an animal. We have to tell your parents,”

Chris nods. “I agree. If not your parents, then the police. Someone!”

“Um, I- I don’t think that’s a good idea guys,” Phil says, remembering about what Eleven said about the “bad people” that morning. Eleven is clearly hiding from someone who hurt him and scared before, and Phil won’t let those bad people hurt Eleven again.

“And why not?” Louise asks, placing a hand on her hip.

“ _Because_ ,” Phil stresses with a sigh. “Honestly, what are the police going to do? The police are useless. Look at what they’ve been doing with PJ! They’ve done absolutely nothing to help him. Nothing!”

“But we can’t keep hiding Eleven in your basement, Phil,” Chris says. “And besides, we should be focusing on finding PJ.” He reaches over and then he grabs a picture of the four of them, PJ included. Chris turns, so that Phil and Louise can see the picture as well. Louise's face instantly softens when she sees the picture. “Guys, this is who we should be focusing on. Our missing friend.”

Eleven looks at the picture, and blinks a few times. He slowly stands from his spot on the ground, and walks closer to Chris, and then he points at PJ, but still doesn’t say anything.

“Do you know who that is?” Phil asks, his eyes widening.

“You know who PJ is? Do you know where he is? Because if you do, and you haven’t said anything-” Chris glares at Eleven. “Start talking!”

“Chris!” Phil warns, gently pulling Eleven back from Chris.

“No! He knows who PJ is, he’s been hiding something important from us!” Chris is shouting at this point. “That’s it. I’m telling someone, and none of you can stop me!” He starts running up the stairs. He opens the door at the door of the stairs, but gasps with shock when the door immediately slams shut in his face. “What the-?” He goes to open the door again, but it does the exact same thing. Chris turns around, and sees Eleven at the bottom of the stairs.

“Holy shit,” Phil whispers, staring at Eleven in shock. “Did you just-?”

“Okay, _now_ he’s a freak!”

“Chris, stop being mean!” Phil shouts at Chris. “Look, we all want to find PJ. Maybe Eleven can help us find him. This could be a good thing. If you would just stop for a second...”

Louise rolls her eyes as Chris and Phil continue arguing with each other. Then she hears sounds coming from outside. She walks over to the window and glances up. Her eyes widen at multiple white vans outside of Phil’s house. “Uh oh. Guys?” Louise looks over at the others with a worried look on her face. “Guys! Come here. I think we might have a problem.” She nods towards the window.

Phil hesitates before walking over. “Oh shit,” he says when he sees the vans.

“Please tell me your mum called the cable guys or something.” Louise looks at Phil.

“I- I don’t think so. We gotta go! We gotta go get somewhere safe and then we’ll hatch a plan. Come on!” He turns around, and runs up the stairs, shoving Chris towards the front door before he can even protest. Luckily Eleven follows. The four run outside the house and head straight for their bikes.

Eleven looks back as Phil is getting his bike ready. His eyes widen the second he recognizes the people. _The bad people_. Eleven quickly taps Phil on the shoulder, wanting him to hurry up.

Phil glances over at Eleven, “What?” and then looks to where he’s staring. He gasps softly when he sees the group of people dressed in suits is staring at them. He sees an old man in the center of the group, staring directly at Eleven. Those have to be the bad people Eleven mentioned before.

“Come on! Let’s go!” He gets on the bike, and allows Eleven to get behind him. They take off, immediately followed by the bad people. Phil’s panicking, but he can’t worry about that right now, because all he can worry about is getting Eleven away from those bad people.

The group barely makes it five minutes down the road before they encounter some bullies from school.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Phil says, breathing heavily as he watches the two bullies walk closer, knives in their hands. Phil looks over at Chris and Louise. “Wh- What do we do?”

“I don’t know? What we always do, run!” Chris jumps off his bike and runs for his life.

“I’m not a very good runner!” Louise cries, before following Chris.

“Come on, we’ve got to go!” Phil quickly grabs Eleven’s hand without even thinking about it, and follows Chris and Louise. Honestly, of all the days for the bullies to chase them.

“Yeah, you better run, freaks!”

“They won’t get very far.” The bullies laugh loudly as they run after the group.

Up ahead, Louise trips over her feet and falls face first to the ground.

“Louise!” Phil cries, letting go of Eleven’s hand and running over to her.

“No, forget about me. Just go! Take Eleven and get somewhere safe. I’ll be fine!” Louise hisses.

“No, I’m not leaving you here!” Phil shouts. He glances up, and his eyes widen when he sees how close the two bullies are getting. “Come on. You gotta get up.”

“Phil, I can’t. I twisted my ankle. Go. What’s the worst they’re gonna do to me? Huh?”

“Phil,” Chris runs over to them. “I’ll stay with Louise. You go and take Eleven.”

Phil looks back and forth at them and hesitates, before grabbing Eleven’s hand and running.

“Gotcha!”

Phil stops dead in his tracks, causing Eleven to nearly fall to the ground. Phil turns and sees that one of the bullies has a tight hold of Chris, holding him down with the knife against his throat. The other keeps Louise against the ground so she can’t get up to help Chris.

“Let him go!” Phil demands. “We haven’t done anything to you!”

“You think we’re gonna listen to _you_ ?” the bully who has Chris snorts. “You all deserve this.”

“We haven’t done anything to you. Let him go. Now. Or I’ll-”

“You’ll what,” the bully sneers, pressing the knife closer against Chris’s skin. “I suggest you walk towards the edge of the cliff over there and jump, or you can say goodbye to your little friend here.”

Phil’s eyes widen at the threat. He looks over at Chris, who looks just as scared as he feels. “Phil, don’t,” Chris warns. “Don’t you dare even think about it. I’m not worth it.”

“You’re my friend, Chris. I’m- I’m not going to let them hurt you,” Phil says. He hesitates, before he slowly turns around, and then slowly starts walking towards the edge where there’s a steep dropoff to the lake.

“Phil!” Louise cries. “Phil, don’t do it!”

Phil takes a deep breath once he gets closer to the edge. He looks down below and whimpers when he sees how long of a jump it is. There’s absolutely no way he’s going to survive this. But he’ll do anything for his friends. Chris and Louise are his best friends, and he knows they’d do the same thing for him.

Phil jumps, and lets out a scream as he starts falling.

And then, he stops halfway. He opens his eyes, and gasps to realize he’s floating. And then he’s slowly being lifted back up, and set back on the ground again.

“I’m not dead,” Phil breathes as he looks around, panicked. “Holy shit. I’m not dead!” He looks up at Eleven, and sees him wiping off some blood under his nose. “I think I’m in love.”

“Phil!” The bullies are so shocked by what just happened that they have let Chris go. He helps Louise up, and they both run over to Phil, despite Louise’s foot injury.

Eleven turns, and glares at the two bullies. He jerks his head, and one of the boys cries out in pain, grabbing a hold of his arm. Eleven looks over at the other boy, whose eyes widen in shock.

“Let’s go!” The boy cries, immediately turning around to run. “Freak!”

Eleven gasps and falls to the ground, breathing heavily.

“Eleven!” Phil shouts as he rushes to him, after reassuring Louise he’s totally fine and not injured at all. “Oh my God. That was totally awesome.” This boy has mind powers. Phil has never met anyone like Eleven before, but he thinks Eleven is one of the coolest kids that he’s ever met.

“Yeah, you better run!” Chris shouts after the bullies. “He’s a freak, and he’s our friend!”

Eleven looks up at Phil, who’s smiling and shaking his head fondly at Chris. “Friend?”

Phil grins at Eleven. “Yeah. Yes, of course you are our friend. Here-” Phil reaches down into his pocket and pulls out a tissue that luckily his mum forces him to carry around with him, handing it over to Eleven so he can wipe the rest of the blood off his nose. “Thank you for that, by the way. For um, saving my life. Now it’s my turn to save yours.”


End file.
